CLOUDFLARE'S ATHENIAN PROJECT

Free security and performance for state and local election websites

Some participants include:

ATHENIAN PROJECT

San Francisco

Rhode Island

Alabama

North Carolina

Hawaii

safe and capitol

Cloudflare is on a mission to help build a better Internet. As one of the world’s largest networks, we believe it is our duty to help protect the most vulnerable voices and most critical institutions on the Internet.

In September 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security informed 21 states that their voter registration files or public election websites had been targeted for cyber attack. Among the many things state and local officials are responsible for in the election space are election websites. Just like every other Internet property, election websites need to be fast, they need to be reliable, and they need to be secure. Yet, scarce budgets too often prevent governments from getting the right resources to prevent attacks and stay online.

Election websites serve a powerful role in democratic elections.

Athenian Project is here to help

Election websites are often the targets of attacks and face vulnerabilities.
Athenian Project protects against these vulnerabilities.

Protect Voter Data and Election Integrity

Prevent attackers and nation-state actors from compromising the integrity of elections by stealing sensitive voter data.

Stay Online During Peak Times

Web traffic during election cycles can vary. Cloudflare keeps websites online and performant during peak times.

Prevent Website Defacement

Website defacement can be the result of brute force login attacks. Cloudflare stops attacks of this nature, preventing the proliferation of inaccurate information.

Learn how to protect your election website

See the Guide

Helping keep elections safe and secure

As we look to the 2020 U.S. elections, we are reminded that having an Internet be secure and accessible for campaigns and citizens alike is critical to our democracy. At Cloudflare, we support the security of election system infrastructure by providing security, performance, and reliability to eligible state and local government websites, in addition to political campaign websites, for free.

Implementing security, reliability, and performance — seamlessly

Trevor and Rich, CIO and CTO respectively at the Colorado Secretary of State, have been implementing new technology for decades and are always looking for the best resources to protect the state's election website. The Athenian Project allows them to effortlessly protect their election infrastructure with security and performance tools strong enough to block large scale DDoS attacks or unexpected spikes in traffic.

"In this year’s historic Senate Special election, it was crucial that our website be able to handle spikes in traffic and remain online in the event of attack. It is very important to our state government and democracy as a whole that voters and the public be able to access registrar, election information, and election results. Cloudflare proved to be an excellent partner, helping us achieve this goal."
JIM PURCELL
Acting Secretary of Information Technology for the State of Alabama

Signing up with Athenian Project

Explore Athenian Project features: Visit our Impact Portal for details on products provided under Athenian Project, security best practices, video demos, and onboarding instructions.

Learn more

Sign up for Athenian Project

  • The administration of elections — including the provision of information related to voting and polling places
  • Voter data, including voter registration or verification, — or —
  • The reporting of election results.